Except it isn’t. This story is like digging through a septic tank, finding a kernel of corn, eating it, and proclaiming it the best meal you’ve had all year.

What’s mindblowing to me about this story isn’t McGee’s capacity to forgive (itself a narrative about black people that can’t die soon enough). It’s that a cop can admit to multiple counts of all kinds of police misconduct and only get 1.5 years after costing who knows how many people who knows how many years of their lives. He should have to serve all of the time he falsely stuck to other people. Don’t even get me started on all of the racism angles that were just treated like “eh” to get to the black forgiveness part. This story in 2016 is a crime in and of itself.

How you get a fluff piece out of this story is beyond me. Even a cursory dig into how Collins career as a police officer ended should have been enough to give the producers at CBS news pause. If McGee had been the only person Collins had railroaded into jail time you might have a case for this story (a still-bad one, but at least it would have something pretending at balance). Ultimately this isn’t McGee’s story. It’s Collins’s story and guess what: none of the stories talking about their ordained bromance is focusing on that.

Looking back at the case you find Collins didn’t act alone. His boss was also in on the action, and they both served time (such as it was). Some of their victims were in jail longer than they were.

But yeah, let’s talk about how this one guy out of the 30 or so cases they nailed him for forgave him.

Benton Harbor is small, only 10,000 people almost on the nose. It is 89% black and only 7% white. That Collins, who reads like a character out of Cop Land, felt comfortable enough to keep living in the town where he did that kind of dirt with those kind of numbers is a lesson in white privilege in and of itself. You make headlines in your town for being a dirty cop that put people’s family members in jail, you’re a severe minority in said town, and you STAY in said town? If the reverse were true the black ex-cop would be dead in a year, assuming he ever got out of jail. As of this writing, Benton Harbor employs 25 police officers. I don’t know how many they had in 2009 but assuming it was roughly the same number, they put two of them in jail in 2009 (Collins and his boss, Hall). That’s 8% of your force ridin’ dirty red-handed seven years ago.

“Berrien County Prosecutor Michael Sepic said the damage done by Collins and Hall continues today…Sepic said then-Prosecutor Art Cotter painstakingly went through the criminal cases, with the assistance of the FBI, to determine which convictions were obtained through the fraudulent activities of Collins and Hall. He said this led to Cotter asking the courts to dismiss about 50 cases, most of which involved defendants who pled guilty.

‘Constitutionally, defendants who pled guilty did not have a right to dismissal; however, doing the right thing meant seeking those dismissals,’ stated Sepic…”

Again:

“…this led to Cotter asking the courts to dismiss about 50 cases, most of which involved defendants who pled guilty.”

These were innocent people. They pled guilty so they could get lesser sentences or leniency for things that the cops and they themselves knew they did not do. Collins did the same thing to get 1.5 years. The community is still trying to navigate the fallout of the crimes he and his boss committed in civil cases and dealing with cases where dismissal seems impossible because of guilty pleas. You know, guilty pleas which shouldn’t have happened in the first place because the people weren’t guilty. These are the kind of convictions you shrug at in the paper every day and think, “Eh, drug dealers. They shouldn’t have had drugs on them.” Cases like these are part of the statistics people throw around and make laws about. Cases like these contributed to superpredator branding in the social consciousness, and its modern cousin, “thug”.

BUT LET’S TALK ABOUT HIS GIG DOING SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS ALONGSIDE THE BLACK FRIEND WHOSE LIFE HE RUINED.

Here are some – SOME – of the people whose cases were tossed out after he got busted:

– Alfonso Gibbs, delivery of narcotics under 50 grams, second offense; maintaining a drug house, second offense; and possession of marijuana, second offense.

– Paul Timothy Williams, delivery of narcotics under 50 grams, second offense; and maintaining a drug house, second offense.

– Nathaniel Dale, delivery of narcotics under 50 grams, second offense; and possession of marijuana, second offense.

– Everrett Morris, delivery of marijuana, second offense.

– Shannon D. McKinney, possession of marijuana, second offense.

– Benny B. Newman, delivery of narcotics, less than 50 grams.

I wonder if Collins asked for their forgiveness and they spat in his face, so CBS was unable to add them to the fairy tale ending they are subjecting us to.

Collins says that when he finally spoke with McGee years later he had no explanation for what he’d done. I find that inconceivable. I can think of a dozen reasons why he did what he did, and I just used Google. The truth is more likely that he doesn’t want to admit the reasons he had. That is a frighteningly common reaction to having led a professional life largely consisting of wrecking havoc on a town of black people.

In summary, I hate this story in the following ways:

I hate it because it is a lie by omission.
I hate it because it is racist, and nowhere in this story does it suggest that.
I hate it because it is facile and pushes buttons and speaks to me like I am dumb; like people are not suffering at this moment in jails under the same conditions.
I hate it because it is yet another example of one of those “conversations” that people think we can have to fix racism instead of putting in actual work.
Most of all, I hate it because, given the opportunity to address the issue of police abuse in a concrete way that might save lives by continuing to draw attention to this kind of behavior, people are focusing on the part of the story that will save exactly zero lives.

6 thoughts on “Should Read “Crooked Cop’s Legacy Stays Being Racist””

This post stuck with me so strongly I just brought it up again to show it to my son & our friend during an in-depth conversation. Thank you for expanding my brain. And your prose is engrossing art unto itself, but I’m sure you already know that…

I also hate it because it perpetrates the myth that racism is solely about how white people treat black people on an individual basis and fails to recognize the MANY systems in place that allowed this to happen. As long as white people continue to think “Well, I don’t have a racist bone in my body. I’ve never even SAID the n-word” as if THAT is the only way racism manifests, we are sunk.

brilliant! I read this story about a month ago and my reaction was a bit different. To my surprise a friend of mine commented on the post saying they found it hard to believe that he would forgive that man. Your insight into the issue really brings it into clear view. I completely understand why it isn’t simply a feel good story. It is a distraction story and a disguised racist one at that! I wasn’t aware of the other cases in which he sent other innocent black men to jail and I find it highly suspicious that it was omitted from the news report.The courtesy would not have been afforded to a black man.

Thanks for this. I just came across one of the “feel-good” versions of this story on a friend’s FB page and it bothered me for a few reasons, primarily because it’s one of those stories that makes people like me (white) comfortable and because it gives the expectation that white people can abuse others and destroy their lives and all will be hunky dory. And why attempt to fix the problems that led to this in the first place? So I began searching and saw the innocent man was in prison 4 years and the dirty cop 1.5. Then I found your piece which said so much more. Thank you!

I’d be curious to know if he sent only black people to prison. If not, what percentage were white? I hate racism, but I think we tend to jump to that conclusion at times, so the statistics could back that theory up. The ex police officer and his boss actually profited financially from their crimes, which could have been the primary (or only) motivation for them. I agree that the time sentenced (36 months) and time served were both too little, but that is consistent with even violent criminal sentences. Either eay, he and his boss deserved more punishmenthan, but he got forgiveness. That says a lot about the good character of the falsely accused.